Book of Shadows: Book One (Wicca)
by Twilightsofty99
Summary: Bella and her best friend, Rosalie, are introduced to Wicca when a gorgeous senior named Mike invites them to join his new coven. Bella falls for Mike immediately- and discovers that she has strong, inexplicable powers. THIS STORY IS ExB! EDWARD WILL COME IN THE SECOND BOOK! Give it a chance!


**I know that this may seem like Bella/ Mike and it is at first but I promise that he will not stay. This story is Edward/Bella! Edward will come in the second book. Sad, I know!**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of the Twilight or Sweep characters, plot, etc. All rights go to Stephenie Meyer and Cate tiernan!**

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I wore a green tie-dyed T-shirt and jeans. My best friend, Rosalie Hale, arrived in a peasant shirt and a long black skirt down to her violet toenails, and of course she looked beautiful and sophisticated.

"Hey junior," she greeted me with a hug, even though I'd just seen her the day before.

"See you in AP calc," I told Janice Yutoh, and met Rosalie halfway down the front steps. "Hey," I said back. "It's hot. It's supposed to be crisp on the first day of school." It wasn't even eight-thirty, but the early September sun was burning whitely, and the air felt muggy and still. Despite the weather I felt excited, expectant: A whole new year was starting, and we were finally upperclassmen.

"Maybe in the Yukon Territory," Rose suggested. "You look great."

"Thanks," I said, appreciating her diplomacy, "you too."

Rosalie looks like a model. She's tall, five-nine, and has a figure most girls would starve themselves for, except Rose eats everything and thinks dieting is for lemmings. She has platinum blond hair that she usually gets styled in Manhattan, so it falls perfectly straight to her waist. Wherever we go, people turn their heads to look at her.

The thing about Rose is that she knows she's gorgeous, and she enjoys it. She doesn't shrug off compliments, or complain about her looks, or pretend she doesn't know what people are talking about. But she isn't exactly conceited, either. She just accepts what she looks like and thinks it's cool.

Rosalie glanced over my shoulder at Widow's Vale High. Its redbrick walls and tall Palladian windows betrayed its former incarnation as our town courthouse. "They didn't paint the woodwork," she said. "Again."

"Nope. Oh my Gosh, look at Lauren Mallory," I said. "She got a tattoo."

Lauren's a senior and the wildest girl in our school. She has died black hair, seven body piercings (that I can see, anyway), and now a circle of flames tattooed around her belly button. She's amazing to look at, at least for me-Ordinary Girl, with my long, medium brown hair. I have dark eyes and a nose that could kindly be described as "strong." Last year I grew four inches, so I'm five-six now. I have broad shoulders and no hips and am still waiting for the breast fairy to show up.

Lauren headed to the side of the cafeteria building where the stoners hung out.

"Her mom must be so proud," I said cattily, but inside I admired her daring. What would it be like to care so little about what other people thought of you?

"I wonder what happens to her nose stud when she sneezes?" asked Rose, and I giggled.

Lauren nodded to Carlisle Cullen, who already looked wasted at eight-thirty in the morning. Chip Sharp, who's absolutely brilliant in math, way better than me, and our school's most reliable dealer, gave Lauren a handshake. Emmett McCarthy, my best friend after Rosalie, looked up and smiled at her.

"Gosh, it's so weird to see Sam here," said Rose, glancing around and running her fingers through her wind-tossed hair.

"Yeah, she'll fit right in," I said. My younger sister, Samantha, was headed toward the main building, laughing with a couple of her friends. Next to most of the freshmen, Sam looked mature and together, with grown-up curves. Stuff just comes naturally to Sam- her hip but not-too-hip clothes, her naturally pretty face, her good but not perfect grades, her wide circle of friends. She's a genuinely nice person, and everyone adores her, even me. You can't help it with Sam.

"Hey, baby," said Jared Cameron loudly, coming up to Rosalie. "Hey, Morgan," he said to me. Jared leaned down and gave Rose a quick kiss, which she caught on her lips.

"Hey, Jared," I said. "Ready for school?"

"Now I am," he said, giving Rosalie a lustful smile.

"Rose! Jared!" Esme Platt waved, gold bangles clinking on her wrist.

Jared grabbed Rosalie's hand and pulled her toward Esme and the other usuals: Angela Webber, Ben Cheney, and Jacob Black.

"Coming?" Rose asked, falling behind.

I made a wry face. "No, thank you."

"Bella, they like you fine," Rose said under her breath, reading my mind as she often did. She'd dropped Jared's hand, waiting for me while he went on ahead.

"It's okay. I need to talk to Leah, anyway." Rosalie knew I didn't feel comfortable with her clique.

She paused another moment. "Okay, see you in home-room."

"See ya."

Rose began to turn away but stopped, her mouth dropping open like someone in Acting 101 doing "dumbstruck." I turned and followed her gaze and saw a boy coming up the steps to our school.

It was like a movie when everything goes into soft focus, everyone becomes silent, and time slows down while you figure out what you're looking at. It was just like that, watching Mike Newton come up the broad, worn front steps of Widow's Vale High.

I didn't know then that he was Mike Newton, of course.

Rose turned back toward me, her eyes wide. "Who is _that_?" she mouthed.

I shook my head. Without thinking, I put my palm to my chest to slow my heartbeat.

The guy walked up to us with a calm confidence I envied. I was aware of heads turning. He smiled at us. It was like the sun coming out of the clouds. "Is this the way to the vice principal's office?" he asked.

I've seen good-looking guys before. Rose's boyfriend, Jared, in fact, is really good-looking. But this guy was . . . _breathtaking_. Raggedy, brown-blond hair looked as if he had hacked at it himself. He had a perfect nose, beautiful olive skin, and riveting, ageless, sea blue eyes. It took me a second to realize he was speaking to us.

I gazed at him stupidly, but Rose sparkled. "Right through there and to the left," she said, pointing to the nearest door. "It's unusual to transfer as a senior, isn't it?" she asked, studying the piece of paper he held out to her.

"Yeah," the guy said. He gave a half smile. "I'm Mike. Mike Newton. My mom and I just moved here."

"I'm Rosalie Hale." Rose gestured to me. "And this is Isabella Swan."

I didn't move. I blinked a couple of times and tried to smile. "Hi, just Bella." I finally said in a near whisper, feeling like a five-year-old. I'm never good at talking to guys, and this time I felt so overwhelmed and shy that I couldn't function at all. I felt like I was trying to stand up in a gale.

"Are you seniors?" Mike asked.

"Juniors," Rose said apologetically.

"Too bad," Mike said. "We won't have classes together."

"Actually you might have some with Bella," Rosalie said with a cute, self-deprecating laugh. "She's taking senior math and science."

"Cool," Mike said, smiling at me. "I better check in. Nice meeting you. Thanks for your help." He turned and strode to the door.

"Bye!" Rosalie said brightly.

As soon as Mike was through the wooden doors into the school building Rose grabbed my arm. "Bella, that guy is a god!" she squealed. "He's going to school here! He'll be here all year!"

The next moment found us surrounded by Rose's friends.

"Who is he?" Esme asked eagerly, her caramel hair brushing her shoulders. Carmen Denali jostled her, trying to get closer to Rosalie.

"Is he going to school here?" Jane Volturi asked.

"Is he straight?" Jacob Black wondered aloud. Jacob's been out of the closet since seventh grade.

"I glanced at Jared. He was frowning. As Rosalie's friends reviewed the meager info, I stepped back, out of the crowd. I drifted to the entrance and put my hand on the heave brass handle, swearing I could still feel the warmth from Mike's touch.

A week passed. As usual, I felt a tingle in my chest as I walked into physics class and saw Mike there. He still looked like a miracle sitting in a dinged-up wooden desk; a god in a mortal place. Today he was focusing his beam on Alessandra Spotford. "It's like a harvest festival? Up in Kinderhook?" I heard him asking her.

Alessandra smiled and looked flustered. "It's not 'til October," she explained. "We get our pumpkins there every year." She tucked a curl behind her ear.

I sat down and opened my notebook. In one week Mike had become the most popular guy at my school. Forget popular; he was a celebrity. Even a lot of the boys liked him. Not Jared Cameron or any other guy whose girlfriend was salivating over Mike, but most of the others.

"What about you, Bella?" Mike asked, turning toward me. "Have you ever been to the harvest festival?"

Casually I flipped to the current chapter in our textbook and nodded, feeling a rush of giddiness at hearing him say my name. "Pretty much everyone goes. There's not a lot else to do around here unless you go down to New York City, and that's two hours away."

Mike had spoken to me several times over the past week, and each time it had gotten a little easier for me to reply to him. We had physics and calculus together every day.

He turned in his desk to face me fully, and I permitted myself a quick glance at him. I don't always trust myself to do this. Not if I want my vocal chords to work. My throat tightened right on schedule.

What was it about Mike that made me feel like this? Well, he was gorgeous, for one obvious thing. But it was more than that. He was different than the other guys I knew. When he looked at me, he really looked at me. He wasn't glancing around the room, checking for his buds or trolling for prettier girls or sneaking quick looks at my boobs-not that I have any. He wasn't self-conscious at all, and he wasn't keeping score socially the way everybody else does. He seemed to look at me or Leah, who was in advanced classes, too, with the same frank intensity and interest that he looked at Alessandra or Rosalie or one of the other local goddesses.

"So what do you do for fun the rest of the time?" he asked me.

I looked back down at my textbook. I wasn't used to this. Good-looking guys usually only talked to me when they wanted a homework assignment.

"I don't know," I said mildly, "Hang out, talk to friends, go to movies."

"What kind of movies do you like?" He leaned forward as if I were the most interesting person in the world and there was no one he would rather be talking to. His eyes never left my face.

I hesitated, feeling awkward and tongue-tied. "Anything. I like all types of movies."

"Really? Me too. You'll have to tell me which theaters to go to. I'm still learning my way around."

Before I could agree or disagree, he smiled at me and turned to face the front of the room as Dr. Gonzalez walked in, thumped his heavy briefcase on his desk, and began to call roll.

I wasn't the only person Mike was charming. He seemed to like everybody. He talked to everyone, sat by different people, didn't show favorites. I knew that at least four of Rose's friends were dying to go out with him, but I hadn't heard of any success so far. I did know that Jacob Black had struck out.


End file.
